Envelop-opener.



PATENTED MAR. '7, 1905,

N. J. BLMGREN. ENVELOP OPENER.

APPLIGATIGN FILED MAR. 2s. 1904,

FIG. 2.

. 3 if 2km. 4.

FIG. 3.

WI TJY ESSES AlO Patented March 7, 1905.x

NELS J. BLOMGREN, OF NORWAY, iilICHltAN.

ENVIELGFMUPENIEW.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 784,136, dated March 7,1905.

Application filed March 23, 19045. Serial No. 199,549.

To (all 14171/0711/ 'llt rmur/y cfm/cern:

Be it known that I, NnLs J. BLoMGi-UGN, a citizen of the United States,residing at .Norway, in the county ot' Dickinson and State oflVlichigan, have invented certain new and use- `liul Improvements inEnvelop-Openers; and I do declarethe following to be a'full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures otl referencemarked thereon, which iorm a part of this siieciiication.

lVly invention relates to improvements in envelop-openers; and thegeneral obfect ol the invention is to provide an envelop-opener whichwill overcome the general defects with earlier constructed devices inthis line namely, that they either get out of order by a short wear oftheir parts` or their cutting edges stand at an obtuse angle to eachother, or the pivot-joint of the cutters is so located that the envelopis pushed away by the approaching knife, and thus not properly cut, orthey are objectionally hard to operate by having the operatinghandle toonear the pivot-joint of the cutters, or they have no means for guidingor holding' the envelop in position so that the knife will get a properhold on it, or there is no proper mechanical adjustment of the cuttersor no proper chance to adjust the cutting edges when they wear, or thecutting-blades are so placed that they may spring during the cutting,and thus not cut properly. All ot` the said detects IV overcome by thenovel construction and combination of parts illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which-w Figure l is a top View of myenvelop-opener. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of saine. Fig. is aright-hand sectional view on the line a a in l? ig. 2. Fig. l is asectional front view oi a portion ot' the machine on the line in Fig. 3.

Vteierring to the drawings by reference-numerals, l designates the lowerand main frame oi the machine. It is ot a rectangular elongatedsomewhat-boX-shaped fornnopen inside, and rests on rubber legs E2,secured in its 'tour corners, and las a horizontally-slidable bottom 3,which may be easily opened in emptying the clippings ot' the envelopeout ot the irame. The 'lront of the frame is formed with a shelf Li,having slots 5, through which extend upwardly screws (i, by which heldupon the sheltl a heavy steel blade 7. This blade or lower cutter iszuljustable rearwardly by the screws 8, threaded in the t'ront o'll thetrarne and pressing with their points against the screws 6, so that thefront cutter 7 may be very accurately and easily adjusted and.

then iirmly held toward the rear and upper cutter or blade 9, which issecured by the screws l() in a substantially vertical position upon theAfront side ollv aswingii'ig upper lframe 1l, pivoted at its rearcorners to the rear corner posts or lips 12 oi: the lower irame byscrews 13, having conical points 14- engaging the upper `trame andjani-nuts l5 to hold the screws i'irmly in such adjusted position asfrom time to time may be required by the wear of the joint.

The upper frame 11 is normally held in an elevated position by the upperarm 17 ot' a spring 18, held by a screw 19 and having its lower end 20resisted by the rear wall of the lower frame. 2l isa striking' plate orbutton secured upon the Front-edgeot the upper frame for the olieratorto strike on in cutting the envelop open bythe shearing edges 22 23 ofthe cutters. The motion ot the upper trame is limited by a i'iatdieiuledstud Qet, sccured in the lower 'frame and encircled by a 'flexiblecushion 25, which when the upper frame descends meets its lett sidefront corner Q6 and when the 'traine ascends said cushion meets thelower arm 27 oi an t..shaped hook 28, secured at 2) to the upper trame.

Upon the lower cutter 7 are secured by screws 3() the ends oi? a guide3i, between which and the lower cutter the edge oi the envelop to beopened is inserted and Forced against the segmental guiding lront lace32 of the upper traine.

The cutting edge 22 ol the upper cutter is so considerably slanted as toproduce an easy shearing cut and has its lower end 33 always inoverlapping contactwith the lower cutter, so that the cutters may alwaysbe closely adj usted without any danger that the upper one TOO may catchupon the lower one, and the top surface of the lower cutter is slanteddown and rearwardly to a plane not higher than the pivot-points 14. I

From the above description it will be understood that in the operationof the machine the strip or guide 3l not only helps to keep the envelopfrom slipping upward when forced against the upper frame, but it alsohelps to Hatten down the often-rounded edg'e of a welllilled envelop,and its third function is to straighten down to a plane envelops thathave got pressed into various curved forms in the mails. The bringing ofthe top of the cutter 7 to a line with the pivots 14, as indicated bythe line c c, or even below the pivots causes the upper cutter to swingat right angles with the face of the lower cutter, and thus to cut theenvelop from the side and not to drive the envelop away, as in earliercutters, in which the front knife is level and the frame-joint far belowsuch level. The fact that I have drawn the line c c below the centers 14is to indicate that l may further slant or incline theenvelop-supporting surface of the cutter 7 and thereby cause the uppercutter to pull on the envelop while cutting' it, and thus prevent itsescape even when the cutters may be quite dull. It will also be seenthat by making the stud 24 Hat and broad its cushion 25 is not liable toget cut to pieces by the contact of the frame, and the head 24X of thestud preventsithe cushion from coming' off, if loosened. The uppercutter 9 by being' placed edgewise toward the envelop has no chance tospring upward in cutting, and rearward springing is prevented by theupper frame. The latter points are mentioned in contradistinction toearlier experiments, in which the upper cutter has been screw-fastenediiat side down upon the top of the upper frame and has then sprungupward between the screws enough to prevent proper cutting of theenvelop, and such arrangement has also necessitated the placing of thestriking plate 21 so far back on the frame that most of the blow of thehand upon the plate has been removed from the cutters, where it would beuseful to the pivots 14C, where it does damage by undue wear, and thusgetting' them out of order.

In the operation of the machine the envelop is placed with either end orlong edge upon the lower cutter 7 and pushed in under the guide 31 tillit touches the surface or face 32 nation, a stationary frame withacutting-blade screw-fastened upon its Jfront portion, avertically-swinging hand-operated frame pivoted to the rear corners ofthe stationary frame, and having' its front part extending downward andthen forward to form a segmental guiding-surface against the envelop, avertically-disposed shearing-blade screw-fastened with its flat sideagainst the front side of the vertical portion of the swinging frameabove the forward extension and coacting' with the blade on thestationary frame in cutting the edge off of the envelop and means forraising the swinging frame and for controlling its motion, saidstationary frame having its blade secured in place by'screws passingthrough slots in the frame, and adjustment-screws acting against thefront sides of the securing-screws for adjusting the blade rearwardly onthe frame and holding it in the adjusted position.

2. An envelop-opener comprising in combination, a main frame and aswinging frame pivoted thereto and a cutting-blade upon each frame tocoact in cutting the envelop, a spring actuating the swinging frame inone direction and a button or plate to strike on to actuate the frame inthe other direction, a broad stud upon the main frame, a flexiblelining' or cushion embracing the stud, an L-shaped hook extending fromthe swinging frame and engaging the lower broad side of the stud, whilethe other side of the stud meets a portion of the swinging framewhenever it is operated by the hand.

In testimony whereofI aflx my signature in presence of two witnesses.

NELS J. BLOMGREN.

Nitn esses:

A. M. CARLsEN, D. E. CARLSEN.

IOO

